Many of ESPN’s most prominent personalities have shown a desire to discuss topics beyond sports. Those discussions usually happen on non-ESPN platforms, such as Stephen A. Smith’s podcast or his appearances on Fox News and beyond. But Pat McAfee is an exception.
McAfee’s daily The Pat McAfee Show is his own property, but it’s licensed to ESPN and appears on its main network. There are frequently non-sports conversations with sports figures, such as Aaron Rodgers’ thoughts on vaccines and conspiracies. But what stands out even further are the times when the show dives into completely non-sports topics. Recently, that came with a reference to internet rumors about Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett, prompting pushback and threats of legal action.
One figure who has covered McAfee extensively through his time with Barstool Sports, FanDuel, and now ESPN is Andrew Marchand. The sports media insider, formerly of The New York Post and currently of The Athletic, raised interesting questions about McAfee’s ESPN relationship in the latest episode of his independent Everybody Loves Sports Media podcast with Jon Meterparel, titled “Pat McAfee and ESPN’s problem.” The full episode requires a subscription, but Marchand posted a clip of it to X:
CLIP: I don’t see why a teenager’s sex life would ever be a topic on ESPN.
POD: ESPN’s Pat McAfee problem pic.twitter.com/ExoXZ1VGjK
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) April 8, 2025
“Pat McAfee, he owns his show. He has the right, if he wants to gossip about an 18-year-old girl’s sex life on his show, he can do that. The question that I have is why is that on ESPN? How does that fit on ESPN? ESPN wants McAfee and that relationship, he is a star, he does have great energy. But I don’t see how that meshes when you’re talking about this girl’s life. If it’s true or not, I don’t think it matters. Why is that a topic on ESPN?”
Marchand certainly has a point there. It’s hard to imagine any ESPN executive or show researcher coming up with the rumors about Cornett as something they’d want on their airwaves, especially considering that they had nothing to do with sports. Pat McAfee only brought this up concerning a discussion of Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, who hasn’t been connected to the Cornett rumors beyond going to that school. And this has led to much criticism for ESPN from both the sports world and the wider world, with Cornett’s comments on McAfee featured in The Athletic and on NBC Nightly News this week.
However, ESPN has also shown remarkable tolerance for Pat McAfee’s show to do things normally not seen on the company’s airwaves. That includes the Rodgers interviews, the platforming of LeBron James to blast Stephen A. Smith, and the public criticism of longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson (who the company parted ways with soon after, although not necessarily over his clash with McAfee). And the licensing agreement gives them some distance. And to that point, while Cornett hasn’t filed litigation against anyone yet, it’s notable that her comments have targeted Pat McAfee himself more than ESPN.
To date, nothing on The Pat McAfee Show has prompted any publicly reported pushback on McAfee from ESPN. That suggests that the company is okay with what McAfee is doing on their airwaves, even if the topics covered aren’t always what they’d pick. But it is interesting to see someone as connected as Marchand cite this as a “problem.”